Phase 9
Phase 9 of Battle Angel Alita: Last Order is No More Excuses. Cover Alita standing amid a light from above and swirling dust. Summary Alita whips off her cloak and hands it to Deckman 100 before putting a reassuring hand on Nola Lafargue's shoulder and going to fight Sachumodo. Pam Mahan says that they need to relocate to a safer place, but Nola is determined to see this through no matter what and will stay to watch. Sachumodo begins to pursue Alita as Nova II and his entourage appear to watch. Sechs comments that if she still had her Solenoid Quench Gun that the fight would be over and notes that based on the footage that the TUNED AR Series 2 had seen of Alita's fight with Den, Sachumodo is inferior in every way and Alita should win. Alita dodges a grab and breaks one of Sachumodo's fingers, but this appears to have no effect as the giant continues to try and grab her with the same hand. Alita uses Sachumodo's left arm as leverage to kick his chest before punching both eyes to blind him and hit the top of his head with a double Hertza Haeon. However this just dazes Sachumodo and he laughs it off. Elf and Zwölf are surprised that the same maneuver that destroyed Sechs' body is of no use, but Nova II realises that as Sachumodo was created from Imaginos cells as a base, he cannot be defeated unless Alita maximises the potential of her Imaginos Body. Sachumodo manages to grab Alita and throws her. She smashes through a statue and ends up beneath where Nova II and his group are standing. Nova II tells Alita that only plasma can defeat Sachumodo, but she will need to form it using her own will and imagination as the Imaginos Body cannot generate it by default. Sachumodo sees Nova II and is asked for Jim Roscoe's body. However he flatly refuses, knowing that Nova II will resurrect Jim, and disintegrates the body at the molecular level. This frustrates Nova II and he tells Alita to get Sachumodo's brain bio-chip so that he can access Jim's memories, but Alita also turns him down and Elf and Zwölf move both him and Sechs out of the immediate area. Alita realises that she cannot generate plasma and allows herself to be hit around by Sachumodo, wondering if she neglected to hone her will or wore her spirit down too much. Sechs, seeing the situation, yells at Alita that she is the most powerful warrior. Alita recalls her training period in Grünthal with Erica when she refused to get up during a sparring bout. Erica reminded her that they had both promised to be warriors like Gelda and there was no way to survive without fighting. Yoko still refused an was told that the only two ways to survive without fighting were to either be a slave or the most powerful warrior. When asked if the most powerful warrior still had to fight, Erica responded that the battle would be over before it began. Yoko then jumped up and declared that she would be the most powerful warrior so she would never have to fight again. Back in the present, Alita thinks that she is not there yet and has been engaged in fight after fight since. She gets punched into the ground and thinks that she has been separated from those dearest to her and at the mercy of her fate. Sachumodo becomes bored with Alita's lack of response and tries to disintegrate her to prevent Nova II from recycling her, but when he tries to do so his right thumb is severed. Alita begins to rise with plasma being emitted from each of her fingers, announcing that there is no why to life and that she is, which is all that she needs. Nova II observes that Alita deliberately placed herself in danger to awaken her survival instincts and enabled the transformation of the Imaginos Body to generate plasma. Sachumodo is amused by the bright light and uses Morion Omicray, which combusts when it comes into contact with Alita's plasma. However he responds by holding the ensuing conflagration back with an electromagnetic field, and begins to heat the trapped plasma with , making it become superheated at over 100,000 degrees C. This creates a massive plasma dome between the two, and if one of the electromagnetic fields generated by either Alita or Sachumodo weakens even slightly, one of them will be showered with plasma. Nova II thinks that Alita is at an overwhelming disadvantage and cannot see how she can escape. Trivia *Sachumodo uses terminology when he plays with Alita, suggesting that sport still exists on Tiphares. *This chapter marks the debut appearances in Last Order of several characters from Battle Angel Alita in Alita's thoughts: **Lou Collins **Hugo **Daisuke Ido **Jashugan **Koyomi **Makaku Category:Angel of the Innocents 009